got a bet going, now this isnt a tractor but im betting some of you actually own one of these, if you take THE hot rod [ '29 to '34 ford ect] and do the usual drop, chop, and put a small block v-8 in it, if you drive this car as just another car ie like a human, what kind of gas mileage does the car get, the bet is barley 10, my take is it gets much better if its not raced, or made to do tire frying burn outs showing off ect, as the car actually weighs very little, about like a modern hybrid or compact car,the engine is just loafing, and should be in the low 20's or better, particularly if it has a modern overdrive transmission in it , any takers here?
- Thread starter ericlb
- Start date
fixerupper
Well-known Member
I'll bet it's in the low 20's somewhere. They aren't very aerodynamic but they're light. Jim
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
I have a 23 bucket-tee with a 302 and a c-4 auto and on open road cruises we get 18-20 mph! The car only weighs 2000 lbs.
Too many variables, Engine/tranny/rear end combos, fuel feed (carb VS IE) ect too make a guess. A small block, with EFI, an OD tranny and and reasonable rear gearing could and should pull close to 30 on a cruise. May have a hard time getting 10 with a big block, dual quads, 3 speed auto/4 speed manual and 4:11.
Rick
Rick
Mike Groom
Well-known Member
I'm in a car club and several guys have open wheel hot rods with small block Chevy engines,most of them get 18-19 MPG,I have one in a short bed pick-up and get 18-18.5 all the time,unless I get in traffic.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
I bet it could get low 20s if it was geared right. They are light and have a low profile. I had a 49 Ford pickup that I put a Y block 292 with 3 deuces into. It weighed 3900 lbs had 4.86 gears and I drove it like a maniac. I got around 10 mpg.
rustyfarmall
Well-known Member
The rear end ratio will make ALL the difference. If you use a 3.50 to 1 rear gear, coupled up to an overdrive tranny, the miles per gallon should be easily in the mid twenties.
My late brother built a T bucket roadster. It had a 350 Chev. (stock inside) TH350 trans and as I recall the gears were in the 3:20 neighborhood. On a road trip he could get 20 or better. My own, if you want to call it a hot rod, is a much modified '48 Willy's pickup. On a GOOD day at 65 or 70, it gets 14. Of course, it's too heavy and has the aerodynamic properties of a cinder block.Ken
john in la
Well-known Member
In 1978 when I was in the USAF I had a 34 Ford 5 window with a chevy 350 4 bolt (vette motor) that put out about 350hp off the factory floor. It had a 300/500 cam and a big holley with factory aluminum intake so it loped a little.
Basically a stock LT1 vette motor with automatic transmission and a Ford truck rear end.
It put out such a difference in horse power to body weight that my main problem I had to solve was rear wheel hop.
While I do not remember exactly what mileage it got I know it was well over 15mpg.
Lets put it this way. I had a stock Z28 with a 350; 4 speed and 373 rear end.
The Ford 5 window would eat the Z28's lunch and got better mileage than the Z28.
I sold the Ford for a house down payment when I got married.
Sometimes wish I had kept the Ford instead.
Basically a stock LT1 vette motor with automatic transmission and a Ford truck rear end.
It put out such a difference in horse power to body weight that my main problem I had to solve was rear wheel hop.
While I do not remember exactly what mileage it got I know it was well over 15mpg.
Lets put it this way. I had a stock Z28 with a 350; 4 speed and 373 rear end.
The Ford 5 window would eat the Z28's lunch and got better mileage than the Z28.
I sold the Ford for a house down payment when I got married.
Sometimes wish I had kept the Ford instead.
Walt Davies
Well-known Member
What ever the engine got in its donor car will be close to what you will get. My Ranger with a4.0 liter engine gets 15 my 10 yard dump with an 8V71 get 10 you figure it out.
Gas mileage on cars is hard to guess at.
Walt
Gas mileage on cars is hard to guess at.
Walt
ShadetreeRet
Well-known Member
Oldtanker said it best, too many variables. You just can't say, "I'm gonna build this and it will get x-miles per gallon. If you just throw something together, chances are fuel mileage will suffer, but if you research the project before you start, you can build a rod that will run and get respectable fuel mileage. I bought a new 1962 Falcon, small 6 cyl. It got respectable mileage. Friend of mine bought a new 1963 Falcon Sprint with the 260 V8, 4 spd. It would run like the wind and got better mileage than mine! Better power to weight ratio. It's also HOW you drive it. I bought a 1964 Impala with the 250 hp. 327, 3spd. Decent mileage. Just to see what it would do, I tuned it up one day, filled it with hi-test, and kept my foot off the floor for that tank of gas, 20 MPG! That even surprised me!
gtractorfan
Well-known Member
You remind me, in the 1960's a fellow worker had a '63 full size Chevy, manual transmission and overdrive. Drove 30+ miles one way to work. He was getting 22 m.p.g. in a time when 14 was average. Never forgot that.
BushogPapa
Well-known Member
Just out of High School, and while I was in the Army, I had a '55 2 door Ford with a 360 HP 352, '55 Merc Overdrive and original 3.23 rear gears..
That car would BURN the interstate and I Won a local economy run with 24.11 MPG and over 27 Ton Miles per gallon..
Beat a New VW injected car...
Wish I still had that one...!!!
Ron..
buickandeere
Member
Lets see. A 310 degree cammed cast iron 600HP 454 with dual 850 double pumpers . 4000rpm stall non lockup converter and 4.56 gears?
Or 450HP of cammed and header equiped all aluminum 5.3 Chev with factory fuel injection 3.42"s and lockup overdrive transmission?
Lets guess which one stops and handles better with the same 1/4 mile time. Or the mileage difference?
Or 450HP of cammed and header equiped all aluminum 5.3 Chev with factory fuel injection 3.42"s and lockup overdrive transmission?
Lets guess which one stops and handles better with the same 1/4 mile time. Or the mileage difference?
fixerupper
Well-known Member
When you mentioned dropping a small block V8 in it sounds to me like a regular non-souped up engine in a daily driver so I still stay with low 20's. Jim
CenTex Farmall
Well-known Member
A book I have that was published in the 70's and based on a series of articles about a T-bucket project had them getting 20mpg out of a 327/th350 and 2.73. IIRC, ran 13's even with the 2.73.
From my experience, '81 Camaro with 350 and 2004r (with lockup) and 2.73 would do 23/24 mpg all day long and could be babied to 26 on a good day. The same vehicle with a stock 292 six would do 28 mpg all day long. This is with my long drive to work which is 95% highway driving. Cruise RPM about 1800.
'70 Camaro, 454/Th400 3.55, ran 12's in the 1320 and 13 mpg. All torque and an absolute blast to drive.
A spreadbore carb is the way to go. A tuned Quadrajet is best though not as 'pretty' to look at.
From my experience, '81 Camaro with 350 and 2004r (with lockup) and 2.73 would do 23/24 mpg all day long and could be babied to 26 on a good day. The same vehicle with a stock 292 six would do 28 mpg all day long. This is with my long drive to work which is 95% highway driving. Cruise RPM about 1800.
'70 Camaro, 454/Th400 3.55, ran 12's in the 1320 and 13 mpg. All torque and an absolute blast to drive.
A spreadbore carb is the way to go. A tuned Quadrajet is best though not as 'pretty' to look at.
freind regularly gets close to 25 in a forty ford with tall gears,289,fairly stock. but its not really a hot rod.he built it for cruising from the start. has another built on a corvett chassis with all corvett running gear,engine souped up fairly well doesnt do as well. bought a 56 ford pickup last year that has a soped up 428,four speed etc drove it to branson once and it got about 10. oddly enough he has a couple of old fords i think about 46 models ,he built years ago with olds rocket 88 engines and running gear. he says they will beat them all on the hyway.really neat little package for these because they look entirely stock.i accuse him of being a bootlegger.
thats the kind of rod im talking about ive got a couple of friends with cars, 1 a stock [ after a 10 year frame off restoration] '48 f-1 truck with the flathead 6 the other has a 29 highboy with a 350 crate motor, the motor in that is 'stock' that is the car is a cruiser, and while due to its light body weight it will defiantly get your undivided attention when you mash the throttle its not built or intended to hit the drag strip, i dont know what either vehicle gets for mileage yet but im going to find out, i fully realize that a hot rod built to the 9's for speed is not going to get reasonable miles per gallon when driven on the street, but a mildly built rod built for cruising will still be fast enough due to light vehicle weight to be fun, yet be easy on fuel [ low to mid 20's mpg] lending itself to be driven as a almost daily driver [ nobody want to try to drive a deuce in a foot of snow]
Janicholson
Well-known Member
My good friend has a 34Ford Rod real car, not plastic. 375hp@6500 302Boss with open chamber aluminum heads and headers. The trans is AOD with 2500 converter. It is beautiful (I engineered the brake pedal linkage and Head milling operations) This car is chopped 4 inches, and lowered, but not channeled. It consistently runs in the 14mpg range. He can drop that to 8 if in to the secondaries. Jim
like all cars it really depends on how you build it from the start. if you was to use a good tight small block,with fuel injection, electronic ignition and a good cam. a modern overdrive transmission,good tall gears,and some tall tires .i dont think you would have any problem whatsoever building a good mileage one. my old 61 cadillac would get in the low twenties on the hiway all day long.maybe 8 in town but thats a different story.most folks think im lying,but i had a 79 ford f150,460,standard c-6,with the fastest speeded gears in the rear end i could order stock. took it straight down to the transmission shop from the dealer and had one of those overdrive units installed behind the transmission.that truck got close to 25 on the hyway. and did real good in town also because it would shift the overdrive unit also between gears so you basically had six gears.that old 460 had enough torque it could just idle along at town speeds. drove it 250 some thousand before one of my hands implanted a deer in the front and totalled it.always thought about building another one,even bought a 93 for a project truck.still a project though..LOL
I would be lucky to get 10mpg with this. Just under 700hp. Car weight 2200lbs. Big converter, big engine, no overdrive. Somewhere around 8mpg with me in the pedal most of the time. MPG wasnt even a discussion when I built this. It is "ok" on fuel when I drive it light, which is rare.
To your question, I know many hot rodders that are getting near 20mpg, driving under normal conditions. Hopped up small block, overdrive trans, and a decent rear gear.
To your question, I know many hot rodders that are getting near 20mpg, driving under normal conditions. Hopped up small block, overdrive trans, and a decent rear gear.
LOL I had a F250, 77, 2WD 460, C6. Don't know gears were in it but it pulled 11-13 MPG all day long. Load no load, 11-13. Was stock except for the carb and that was a 750 CFM Holly. Must have had a fairly good set of gears, running at 55 it was about 1500 RPM's and about 1800 at 70. Sure miss that engine.
Rick
i really liked mine,never had one seconds problem with it. I forget the name of that od unit that i had installed,but it was one of those that bolted in the drive line behind the transmission. didnt cost all that much $1500 or so as i recall installed at that time,probably two or three times that now if you could find one.wouldnt take long to pay for it at todays gas prices though.what i had in mind for my project was to take one of those 300 six bangers and rig it up the same way.wouldnt pull anything but should run up and down the road pretty cheap.
no reason whatsoever on the hiway. the fact that one of those units actually shift from low to high between standard gear changes would help though . gives the effect of a six or eight speed transmission,instead of just going into overdrive at say 45mph or so. that saves you gas in town . another is when pulling a load it would, if set right, help keep engine in the peak torque range to maximize torgue. of course if you put one behind a overdrive transmission ,engine would probably fall flat on its face simply because it wouldnt be running fast enough to develop any hp on the hiway . and probably would be shifting all the time unless you were on dead level ground. i used to know what the gear ratios were on ford trannys,but dont recall now.but if you overdrived a overdrive tranny you would have some high gear ratios ,probably too much.
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